1. Field
The present invention relates to self-guided aerial vehicles, and more, particularly to control moment gyroscopes (“CMG”).
2. Related Art
At present a number of vehicles (such as, for example aircraft, spacecraft, and surface and submersible marine vehicles) utilize control moment gyroscopes (“CMG”) as attitude control devices within attitude control and inertial navigation systems of the vehicles. In general, a CMG is a device that includes a gyroscope that includes a spinning rotor and one or more motorized gimbals that tilt the angular momentum of the rotor. As is appreciated by those of ordinary skill in art, a gyroscope is a device that includes the spinning rotor where the axis of rotation of the spinning rotor is free to assume any orientation and the orientation of this axis of rotation is unaffected by tilting or rotation of the gimbal because of the conservation of angular momentum. Additionally, a gimbal is a pivoted support structure that allows the rotation of an object about at least a single axis.
While CMGs are very useful for both attitude control and inertial navigation systems of these types of vehicles, their disadvantage is weight that induces a weight penalty on the respective vehicle. Additionally, the necessary power supplies of these vehicles are also heavy components because they typically include electrical batteries that are heavy devices.
As a result, vehicles in the aerospace, submersible, space-access, and space-based areas have a problem that the physical limitation on the amount of payload that a respective vehicle is capable of carrying is directly related to the combined weight of all the on-board components and devices on that vehicle. This problem increases as these vehicles become smaller, carry more payload, or both. As such, there is a need for a system and method that resolves these problems.